Uphill Battle
by spiritx33
Summary: Natalia has to fight an uphill battle now that she's a MDPD CSI and her coworkers will barely give her the time of day. She knows she needs to redeem herself, but she gets sidetracked when someone from her past shows up. INCOMPLETE and probably dead.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This'll pretty much be about what I'm hoping will happen next season as far as Natalia and Natalia/Eric go. (Well... Not all of it. I'll probably throw in a little more drama than I'd actually like.)

**Uphill Battle**  
Chapter One

Natalia Boa Vista almost broke her ankle as she made a mad dash down the back stairwell of the Miami Dade building. Her workday was over and, because of the events that had happened earlier that day, she had a feeling that her job at Miami Dade as a DNA analyst was over too.

The feds had finally swept into the CSI lab after receiving a "blind tip" that recent evidence had been tampered with. Even Natalia was surprised at their arrival and completely unaware of why they were there. Maxine Valera, a woman she worked with in the DNA lab, was the first to be interrogated by the feds and filled Natalia in on everything when she returned. Natalia had been completely unaware that the feds were coming in today and was in the dark just as everyone else was.

Yes, she was the mole the feds had planted in the department, but she knew nothing of any tampered evidence and obviously had never called it in. In fact, she had never reported anything to the feds that could get the lab in trouble. She had taken a liking to all of her coworkers—to Calleigh, Horatio, Alexx, Maxine, Ryan, and especially Eric—and would be heartbroken if any of them ever lost their jobs because she reported bad information on them.

She had never been more anxious to leave the lab than she was today, after it was finally revealed that she was the mole. She had told Eric after bumping into him in the hall, which was at this point one of the biggest regrets of her life. She could have just agreed with him, she could have said to him "Yeah, I'm sure the feds will get to me later," but she just had to follow her heart and tell him that the feds wouldn't interrogate her.

The truth was she still loved and cared for Eric. They had dated on and off for the past year and she had recently called it quits, first after a pregnancy scare and then made it final after she discovered that Eric had given permission to Ryan to ask her out, telling him that she was "cleared for landing." This had hurt her almost as much as some past events in her life had.

Even though Natalia had gone on that date with Ryan, she knew, and still does know, that she could never love Ryan the way she had, and still does, love Eric. Ryan was a great guy, but it was Eric who had her heart from the beginning and even now, after everything, still does.

Who knows why she went on that date with Ryan… Not even she knew. Perhaps it was because she was so furious with Eric at the time that she wanted to get back at him. Maybe it was because Eric was the first one she not only loved, but took the chance having a relationship with since… well… _him_. When she had heard that Eric had handed her off to Ryan that easily, what he said, she had been so hurt, so heartbroken and feeling so vulnerable that she had needed someone else she trusted to cling to until she could get herself sorted out. Or maybe it was a mixture of both, the wanting to get back at him and her needing to be near someone until she could recover from the hurt Eric caused her.

But she had gone on that date with Ryan, which had turned out to be much more fun than it was romantic, if it had been romantic at all. In Natalia's opinion, it couldn't have gone any better because she wasn't looking for a relationship and their date hadn't even hinted at anything of the sort.

They had gone on a second date, dinner at a very nice, very expensive restaurant, but that was when Natalia had to draw the line. She had told Ryan in the least hurtful way that she wasn't sure if she could continue the possible relationship, and to her relief, he took it really well.

With the help of Hannah, a very good friend of hers, she was able to take her heart off her sleeve and put it back in its place. She was very thankful to have Hannah in her life, as well as all of the other women in the Miami area who would come to the meetings Hannah held once a month.

Natalia was part of an underground network for abused women and Hannah was the woman responsible for the network in the Miami area. Hannah, also a survivor of abuse, held monthly meetings at her home where the women would get together and just talk—talk about their current lives, the good and the bad in them, talk about their fears, worries, and concerns, talk about their hopes and dreams for the future, and sometimes even their past, but it was rare because it was very triggering to a lot of the women. You could call it group therapy with coffee and doughnuts on the side.

Now Natalia, after tripping down the last several stairs but catching herself before she hit the ground, left the back stairwell and was nearly jogging to her car in the parking lot, trying to get as far away from the Miami Dade building as possible. She _had_ to get away from the Miami Dade building.

After she had confessed to Eric that she was the mole, word quickly spread through the department and no one would even do so much as to say one word to her, though they didn't seem to have a problem glaring at her as she'd pass by.

She wished that she had been able to explain herself to everyone, to explain that she had only told the feds good things about the lab, but Calleigh was the only one who would listen. Calleigh was the only one in the entire department who had tolerated her. While the 'bullet girl' was still furious, she spoke with her. For a second there, it seemed like nothing was wrong, like it was just another day at the lab.

Natalia was trembling when she got into her car and locked the door. It took her two or three tries to get her key in the ignition because her hand was so shaky, but she finally managed to start her car. She buckled her seatbelt, threw the car into reverse to pull out of the parking spot, and ignored the twenty-five miles per hour speed limit sign as she went flying out of the parking lot and down the street at forty miles an hour.

When she stopped at her first traffic light, Natalia reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. She was flipping through her contacts list when she saw Eric's number on there and found herself dying to call him, dying to explain. The traffic light had turned green but she was too focused on her phone and the thought of calling Eric to notice. An impatient driver honked at her and she resumed driving, completely oblivious to her speed of forty while she was still in a twenty-five mile area.

She was only half paying attention to the road when shedecided against calling Eric and instead continued to flip through her contacts until she came upon Hannah's number. She turned onto a side street, her tires squealing from the speed of the car, and pressed the 'send' button on her phone.

"_Please, please be home, Hannah,_" Natalia pleaded in her mind. She didn't know what she'd do if the woman wasn't.

Hannah picked up. "Hey, Natalia," she said, her voice cool and calm.

"Hannah," Natalia replied. She paused for a momentwhen she slammed on her breaks as a red ball bounced into the middle of the road. It was a good thing that she had because sure enough, a child was not too far behind it. Her car jerked to a stop and she sat in silence for a few moments. "I... I need to talk to you."

The woman noticed a tremor in Natalia's voice, and was immediately worried. "Of course you can come over, hon. You're always welcomed here, you know that," Hannah answered, the cool and calm gone from her voice. "What's wrong?"

"I…I…" Natalia wasn't sure what to tell her friend. She resumed driving when the child was back on the sidewalk, now running to a mother that was scolding him for running into the street.

Hannah frowned at the silence on the other end of the phone. "I'll see you shortly, sweetie, okay?"

"Kay," Natalia answered shortly.

"Okay. Drive carefully."

The two women hung up and Natalia tossed her phone up on the dashboard. She resumed her speed of forty and nearly had to slam on her breaks again to get back down to twenty-five when a police officer drove by.

When the officer was out of sight, she resumed her speed. She needed to get to Hannah's house before she had a major panic attack on the road.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** I apologize for taking so long to update… I'm hoping that my future updates won't take as long as this one did, but I can't promise anything. I also apologize if this chapter turns out to be horribly written. I'm lacking in the motivation department and am also battling an annoying case of writer's block. On another note, thank you to JacobedRose and Rainbow Stevie for your reviews! They're greatly appreciated!

**Uphill Battle**  
Chapter Two

After narrowly avoiding two car accidents on her way over, Natalia arrived at Hannah's house just four minutes after the women had ended their phone conversation. Because she was so upset over the day's events, she could barely focus on the road, which resulted in some reckless driving. Everything that had happened earlier today was etched into her mind and she found herself with a whole list of questions she was dying to know the answers to, but didn't know who to ask them to.

What now? What's to become of her grant? Her friendships with the other CSIs? What will Miami Dade do to her? What about the feds? What happens now?

She pulled up close to the curb in front of Hannah's house, parked the car, and turned off the engine. Instead of getting out, she sat in the driver's seat for a minute, desperately trying to keep herself together. The last thing she needed was to have a panic attack.

She hadn't had a panic attack in almost three years and never wanted one again. Her attacks are always horrible; her body shakes uncontrollably and she hyperventilates, sometimes to a point where she passes out. The shaking is almost as bad as that of a seizure, and the hyperventilating leaves her throat and diaphragm sore for days.

So here she was, sitting in her car and trying her hardest to hold herself together, just as she had done that day at work in the evidence locker when she had been held at gunpoint. She saw movement from the corner of her eye and looked over to see Hannah jogging down her walkway to the car.

Natalia unlocked the door and unbuckled her seatbelt as Hannah came up along the driver's side. She opened the door and looked down at Natalia, her eyes filled with concern. "What's wrong, Nat?" she asked.

Natalia got out of the car, closed the door, and locked it up. "Bad day at work," she answered, her brown eyes avoiding Hannah's.

Hannah frowned, noticing how anxious and worried Natalia seemed. She gently placed her hand on her back. "Let's go inside and you can tell me everything."

The two women made their way up the walk and into Hannah's house. They went into the kitchen where Natalia took a seat at the table and Hannah pulled out a can of coffee grinds. "Coffee?" she asked.

Natalia shook her head. She was still too shaken up from the day's events to eat or drink anything. She was devastated that she lost the entire department's trust, that she probably lost her grant, and most importantly, Eric… she just couldn't get out of her mind the disappointment and anger she had seen in his eyes. Their last interaction continued to replay over and over again, everything he said…

"_You're the mole. … That was your heads up? …You've known me a year and you wait until the day that the feds swoop in to tell us you've been reporting on the lab? … Save it, Natalia. … I don't care. …Look, I've gotta go. …I've gotta take these to A.V. …No. …Don't touch anything."_

Thinking about Eric made her want to cry. She had to blink every second to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall.

Hannah abandoned the coffee grinds and took a seat at the table opposite Natalia. "You want to tell me what happened?" She waited patiently for a response.

"I…" Where should she start? Natalia tapped her fingers on the wooden table as she tried to think of a good place to begin. After a moment, she continued. "…Do you remember when I told the girls that the feds had granted me the DNA lab for cold cases?"

The memory brought a smile to Hannah's face. "I do," she said and nodded her head. "You were thrilled." She paused, remembering how giddy Natalia had been that night. They had all been so happy for her and she had left the meeting with the widest smile Hannah had ever seen.

"Well…" Natalia stopped tapping and looked up at Hannah. "When the feds granted my request, they told me they thought the CSI lab was a rogue one and that I should report any suspicious activity to them." She waited for Hannah to say something, but when she didn't, Natalia continued. "I agreed, but it was only because I was afraid that they'd take back the grant if I didn't."

Natalia placed her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands. "So I accepted… They told me I should call them every week to give them an update, and I did—But never once did I say anything bad about the lab. For the first couple weeks I was so thrilled with my grant that I didn't pay much attention to anything besides the cold cases. I'd just tell the feds that things looked good.

"When the initial excitement of the grant died down, I started to involve myself in the current cases that the CSIs were working on. The feds were unhappy that I had only been giving them good information and I was afraid they'd take back the grant if I didn't start looking for the bad." She took her elbows off the table and rested her hands in her lap.

"It's a good thing that I never decided to be an undercover cop… I couldn't find one thing wrong with the CSIs' handling of their cases. I was also beginning to develop friendships with them… Finding nothing wrong was discouraging, and the relationships I was forming with the CSIs… I didn't want to be the feds' little mole anymore. I loved the department and everyone in it."

Hannah smiled. Natalia raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "What?"

"Nothing."

"No, tell me."

"It's nothing major…" Hannah started. "You said you loved everyone in the department. It made me think of Eric."

Natalia blushed. She had mentioned Eric at many past meetings. While the women, including Hannah, were aware that the two had stopped seeing each other, it was obvious that Natalia still had a thing for him.

If Natalia had been sitting close enough, she would have playfully whacked Hannah. "Oh," she said and rolled her eyes. There was a slight pause before Natalia nodded her head. "Well… Yeah, he played a large part in me not telling the feds anything bad."

Hannah nodded, satisfied with what Natalia said, and then resumed listening. "So anyway, I went back to focusing on my cold cases," Natalia started up again. The feds were probably getting tired with me because I had no useful information for them, but I redeemed myself when I solved that one case I told you about."

"The rape case," Hannah said, remembering the meeting where they had all watched Natalia on the news, speaking at a press conference about the originally accused man's exoneration.

It was that day when Hannah realized Natalia was no longer the frightened, weak woman she had been when she first joined. In a matter of only a couple years, Natalia had grown to be a very strong, outgoing, and successful woman. She was a true inspiration to all of the women in the organization.

"That's the one." Natalia nodded. She began to absentmindedly pick at her nails as she continued talking. "Since that day, the feds stopped giving me a hard time. I felt this great weight taken off of my shoulders because I felt like I didn't have to worry about having to spy on the lab anymore. Now that the feds saw that I was putting the grant to use, they'd never take it back."

Hannah smiled and leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. "Uh-huh."

"Well… that weight came back today," Natalia started. Hannah looked at Natalia, slightly confused and slightly concerned.

Natalia went on. "The feds stormed the lab this morning. I had no knowledge of this and was just as nervous as the others were. …To make a long story short, the feds had gotten word from some blind tip that the lab had mishandled monetary evidence from a recent crime scene, and the feds were there to figure out who was responsible for it. They spent the entire day questioning everyone in the department that could have possibly had access to it."

That part of the explanation was over, but that was the easy part. It was what she explained next that brought tears to her eyes.

"I knew they wouldn't interrogate me because I worked for them…" Now it was becoming difficult to speak, and she had to force herself to spit out the words. They all came out very, very quickly. "I ran into Eric sometime around noon and he asked me if they had questioned me yet and I told him that they didn't and then he said that they'd get to me soon and I said that they wouldn't…" Natalia was beginning to choke up. "Then he put two and two together, and…" Her bottom lip trembled as she relived the scene again. "Hannah… The anger in his eyes… The disappointment and the frustration…"

There were too many tears at this point to blink back, so they began to flow freely down her cheeks. "It felt like only a couple of seconds had gone by before the entire department knew. When everyone found out I was the mole… Calleigh was the only one who would talk to me… I… I don't know what to do, Hannah."

Natalia wiped her eyes, not caring that her mascara was now smeared across her face and hands. "I don't want to go back tomorrow," she said, shaking her head. "I can't go back tomorrow…" Her voice trailed off.

"Hon," Hannah started, "You don't have to go to work tomorrow. I'm sure they'll let you take a day or two off. And I'll see to it that they do. You deserve it." She stood up and walked around the table to Natalia, where she gently rubbed her back as Natalia did her best to keep herself together.

After several moments, Natalia nodded her head and looked up at Hannah. "Thanks, Hannah," she said, very thankful and grateful to have someone like her in her life.

Hannah smiled. "Anytime, girl. Now give me a hug." She removed her hand from Natalia's back and held her arms out.

Natalia stood up and both women embraced. The hug was cut short by Hannah's home phone. Someone was calling, and the ringing made both women jump.

Hannah walked across the kitchen to where her cordless phone hung on the wall. She picked it up and rested it on her shoulder. "Hello?" she answered.

A minute or two passed before Hannah hung up the phone. Natalia looked over at her, a questioning expression on her face.

"That was Kathryn," Hannah told her. Kathryn was the newest member of the organization and quick to open up, even though it was obvious that she was scared to death. She had reason to be because unlike Natalia, Kathryn hadn't taken her abuser to court, and she instead decided to run, from Key West to Ft. Lauderdale. She had recently gotten word from a friend back home that he had set out to find her.

It was obvious that Kathryn was in a crisis. "She's coming over?" Natalia asked. Hannah's response was a nod. "I should get going, then."

"Why don't you go clean yourself up in the bathroom first," Hannah suggested. "I don't think smeared mascara is in style yet."

This got a chuckle out of Natalia, and she left for the bathroom to freshen up before heading home, where she'd be all alone.

This was going to be a long night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone for the reviews! I apologize for taking so long to put up this next chapter, and I also apologize for it being horrible. It's pretty much just filler. Chapter four should be up soon (and will be better than this one, I hope).

**Uphill Battle**  
Chapter 3

It had definitely been a long night at the Boa Vista residence. Natalia had fallen asleep around 3:30 in the morning and was just waking up at 10 a.m. She spent about twenty minutes lying in bed, the events of yesterday playing through her head again, before she actually got up. It wasn't until she had finished stretching and stood up that she realized she had fallen asleep in her clothes.

It took her a while to walk down the hall, down the stairs, across the foyer, and into the kitchen, but she eventually made it. She immediately made her way over to the refrigerator, where she took out a can of coffee grinds. She grabbed onto the fridge door to close it, but she paused as her eyes fell on the cans of Starbucks DoubleShots that sat on the second shelf. The espresso drink would be much more effective than coffee would, so she put the coffee back in the fridge and took out a DoubleShot instead.

Before she did anything more, Natalia put the espresso down on the kitchen table and stepped outside to get the newspaper. She was still outside when she noticed a picture of Aaron Jessop at the bottom of the main page, accompanied by a lengthy article. Of what, she'd find out once she was seated at the table.

When she was comfortable at her kitchen table and had already had several sips of her espresso, she unfolded the newspaper to get a good look at the article accompanied by the picture of Aaron. It was a lengthy article that included several paragraphs on him, but many more paragraphs on what had gone down at the lab.

Natalia scanned quickly through the article, hoping and praying that she wouldn't be mentioned. To her relief, she didn't find her name anywhere in the article. However, it did mention that the lab had been under federal investigation, and that there had been a mole planted there. It went on a little bit to say that the mole had been spying on the CSIs and reporting their every move back to the feds.

This annoyed Natalia and brought back the miserable mood she was in yesterday. Yes, she was the mole, but she never told the feds anything that would make the lab look bad! Why didn't anyone believe her!

Furious, Natalia threw the newspaper off of the table and knocked her cup of coffee over in the process. The hot coffee fell into her lap and she jumped up out of the chair. "God damnit!" she yelled.

She raced over to the counter where she kept a roll of paper towels, grabbed a handful, and made her way back over to the mess to clean it up.

When the paper towels had absorbed everything, Natalia abandoned them on the kitchen floor and went back upstairs.

She went into the bathroom, slammed the door behind her, and turned on the water for the shower. She quickly removed her clothes and then stepped into the shower, not caring that the water wasn't at the right temperature yet.

For a few moments she stood completely motionless under the showerhead, letting the warm water run down her body. She tried her best to clear her mind and relax, but the anxiety was almost too much to bear. Her bottom lip quivered and her hands shook as she fought with herself to stay calm. She had done enough crying last night to last a lifetime and then some. Not to mention that her eyes stung badly.

She somehow managed to keep herself together as she bathed, but memories of the day before and thoughts on what might happen in the near future was all she could think about.

By one o'clock, Natalia had composed herself enough to leave the house. Dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, wearing no makeup, and her hair in a very messy ponytail, she set out in her car to the local gym. She couldn't stay in her house all day and instead decided to take all of her negative emotions and channel them into physical activity.

Natalia spent two hours at the gym using the bicycles, the elliptical, the weight machines, and running on a treadmill. She could have kept going for at least another hour, but she was interrupted by one of the trainers.

She had been not jogging, but running, at a pretty fast speed for about forty minutes when the trainer came up to her. He was very built and looked to be in his late 20's.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but… You're gonna wear yourself out if you keep going."

Natalia didn't want to talk to this man, but it looked like she had no choice. "That's the whole point," she answered back, between gasps of air.

The man seemed to be amused with her response. He crossed his arms over his chest and his lips curled up into a smile. "But you don't want to pass out and wake up in a hospital bed."

Some time passed before Natalia decided to stop, turning down the speed of the treadmill slowly so she didn't go flying off of it. Then she grabbed her water bottle that was sitting on top of the treadmill and took a drink. The man—whose name was John, according to his nametag—was still standing in front of her, but she didn't respond back to him. Instead she shot him a look that said: "happy?"

John chuckled, shook his head, and then turned to walk away. Natalia glared as she watched him disappear into another room, and then resumed chugging whatever amount of water that was left in her water bottle.

On her drive home, Natalia couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen John somewhere before. It was someplace else besides the gym, but she couldn't remember where. He looked awfully familiar, but she just couldn't place him…

Her mind was taken off of John when her cell phone began to ring. She had just pulled into the driveway and was now searching through her purse to retrieve her cell. When she found it, which didn't take very long to do, she was surprised to see the name that popped up on the Caller ID—Ryan Wolfe.

Natalia watched her phone for a minute, staring at Ryan's name. Why would he be calling her? Why would anyone at Miami-Dade be calling her?

With reluctance, Natalia flipped open her phone and held it up to her ear. "Ryan?" she asked in disbelief. What he said next left her surprised and clueless:

"Boa Vista. We need you at a crime scene."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Now I understand why everyone always says "read and review!" Reviews are pretty awesome, aren't they? Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far. …On another note, this chapter contains possible spoilers for the first episode of season five.

**Uphill Battle**  
Chapter 4 

"What the _hell_ am I doing?" Natalia asked herself as she drove away from her house, the steering wheel in one hand and directions from MapQuest in the other.

Ryan Wolfe had called her up about twenty minutes ago, asking for her assistance at a crime scene. Horatio left Calleigh in charge of the entire lab while him and Eric went off to Brazil, leaving the team several CSIs short. Ryan didn't seem to care that Natalia had never gone through the training necessary to become a CSI; however, she had helped process with him at a crime scene once, so that was good enough for him.

Natalia wasn't sure why she had agreed to go down and help out. She had no desire to see anyone from Miami Dade, and she was positive that no one there wanted to see her, either. When he had called before, Ryan's cold, bitter voice confirmed that. It was more than obvious to Natalia that she was the last person he wanted to talk to.

It took about twenty-five minutes to get to the crime scene, and that was only because she chose to take the long route to the location. As she turned onto the street where the crime scene was located, she decided that her long route just wasn't long enough.

She had to park a little ways up the street, due to the fact that the all-too-familiar Hummers and police cars took up most of the road near the actual crime scene. As she made her way towards the house that was marked off with the yellow crime tape, she could make out Ryan and Frank Tripp talking to a man, who she assumed was a witness.

Frank was the first to notice her as she signed in with a MDPD officer, and the expression on his face was anything but welcoming. Ryan was quick to spot Natalia after following Frank's gaze, and even quicker to make his way over to her to give her a kit and explain the situation. She smiled and began to say hello when he interrupted her.

"You need a kit," Ryan said as he approached Natalia. He passed her and continued to one of the Hummers, where several spare kits sat in the back of the trunk.

"Okay," she said, nodding her head as she followed him to the vehicle. She watched quietly as he reached into the trunk and pulled out a kit.

As soon as she took the kit from him, Ryan immediately started back towards the house. Once again, Natalia followed after him, and he began filling her in: "The vic is Hilary Silvers. Thirty-six year old female, beaten to death." Ryan started. "No C.O.D. yet. Alexx didn't find any noticeable markings on the body to suggest a weapon was used, but keep an eye out for one anyway."

Natalia tensed up when Ryan began explaining the situation to her. A woman. Beaten to death.

The two went up the walkway and into the house, passing the man and Frank, who was still shooting daggers at Natalia. When they were in the house and out of earshot of the two men, Natalia questioned Ryan. "Who's the man with Frank?"

Ryan's pace didn't slow up, and he didn't turn to look at Natalia, either. "Carl Silvers. Vic's husband. Said he came home and found her dead, but that was before we pointed out the blood spatter on his shirt."

A woman. Beaten to death. Blood spatter on husband's shirt. Natalia suddenly wasn't feeling too well.

"What did he say then?" she asked.

Ryan shrugged as he turned the corner of the hallway and stopped in the living room where Alexx Woods, Miami Dade's medical examiner, was assessing Hilary Silver's body. "Said she was still alive when he got home, but didn't admit to killing her."

Lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie. That was the only thing going through Natalia's head. Lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie. If it were up to her, she would have already thrown the husband in jail, but that was only because she was letting her emotions and past get to her.

Natalia nodded as she tried to push past her emotions and look at the crime scene from another viewpoint. The scene in front of her made her very uncomfortable. Hilary lay sprawled out in the middle of the floor, covered in bruises and blood, most of which was beginning to dry or had already dried. As far as the room went, nothing was disheveled, knocked over, or broken to indicate any sign of a struggle.

The hardest thing for her to look at was the body, which brought back a lot of painful memories. _"That part of your life is over, Natalia. You're okay now,"_ she told herself. In a desperate attempt to take her mind off of the body, her eyes fell on what was closest to it, Alexx. She smiled. "Hey, Alexx," she said.

Alexx didn't give much of a response, besides hello and a quick glance up. Her voice differed from Ryan's. It was much kinder, but you could hear the disappointment.

Natalia looked back over at Ryan, who began to open his kit and put on his gloves. She did the same and crouched down, set her kit on the carpet, opened it up, and pulled out the gloves the CSIs were required to wear when at a crime scene or processing evidence at the lab. She took another look around the room as she pulled on her gloves, and then reached back into her kit to take out a cotton swab.

"Try not to step on any evidence this time," Ryan said to Natalia as she stood up, his voice still bitter and cold. She glanced back at him, but he was already focused on the room. She sighed, and then continued over towards the coffee table, where she noticed smeared blood along the side of it.

She grabbed the camera that sat in the middle of the floor and then looked through the lens. Once she focused in on the blood, she snapped a picture, then a second one, just in case the first picture doesn't develop properly.

Once she put down the camera, she took the cotton swab, opened the small, orange, plastic container that covered the top of the swab, and pushed the swab up, away from the container. She then bent down and ran the cotton tip through the blood, stopping when she got just enough for DNA testing. When she was satisfied, she pulled the swab back down so the cotton tip was back inside the container. She closed the lid to the container and made her way back to her kit, where she crouched down next to it and began searching through it for labels.

She found a sheet of small, white labels and used a permanent black marker to label the blood sample on the swab. As she wrote down where she found the sample of blood from, she decided to break the uncomfortable silence that had settled over the room.

"So how's Eric holding up?" she asked, looking up from the swab for a moment to focus on Ryan. "And Horatio?"

Ryan didn't look up from his work. "What's it to you?" he asked.

Natalia shrugged. "I was just wondering… I'm concerned—"

Some sort of noise between a laugh and a snort came out of Ryan, cutting her off. He stood up and glared at her. "You were the feds' little _mole_, Natalia. The only person you're concerned about is yourself."

Natalia grew very angry at Ryan's comment and her voice showed it. "That's not fair, Ryan! You know I didn't want the job nor did I ever say…" Her voice faded as she watched Ryan leave the room. She sighed and then shook her head once he was out of sight. She looked over at Alexx, who was still in the room, although getting ready to transport the body to the morgue.

Alexx looked at Natalia and shook her head. "Don't look at me, baby," she said. "You brought this on yourself."


End file.
